{{Short description|American judge}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = Judge | name = J. Dale Wainwright | image = Dale Wainwright.jpg | office = Justice of the Texas Supreme Court,<br>Place 7 | term_start = January 7, 2003 | term_end = September 30, 2012 | predecessor = Deborah Hankinson | successor = Jeffrey S. Boyd | office2 = District Judge of the 334th Civil Court of Harris County, Texas | term_start2 = 1999 | term_end2 = 2003 | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1961|6|19}} | birth_place = Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, U.S. | party = Republican | alma_mater = Howard University (B.A.)<br>University of Chicago Law School (J.D.) | occupation = attorney, former jurist | spouse = Debra Wainwright | children = 4 | footnotes = }}
'''J. Dale Wainwright''' (born June 19, 1961<ref name=dalew>{{cite web|url=http://www.voiceofpayments.org/voter-resources/official/59085/K/TX/Dale/Wainwright |title=Justice Dale Wainwright |publisher=voiceofpayments.org |accessdate=November 28, 2012 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111201094228/http://www.voiceofpayments.org/voter-resources/official/59085/K/TX/Dale/Wainwright |archivedate=December 1, 2011 }}</ref> in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee) is a former associate justice of the Texas Supreme Court, now in private practice with Greenberg Traurig, LLP in Austin, Texas.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.texasbar.com/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Find_A_Lawyer&template=/Customsource/MemberDirectory/MemberDirectoryDetail.cfm&ContactID=190758|title=SBOT Profile Page for J. Dale Wainwright}}</ref>
Wainwright was initially elected to a six-year term, in November 2002, to replace Deborah Hankinson. In 2008, he was re-elected to a second term that would have ended in December 2014.{{citation needed|date=February 2016}}
On September 30, 2012, Wainwright officially resigned from the Texas Supreme Court after nearly a decade of service. He subsequently joined the Austin office of the law firm Bracewell and Giuliani. His successor on the court, effective December 3, 2012, was Jeffrey S. Boyd, a former chief of staff of then Texas Governor Rick Perry. Boyd was appointed by Perry to serve for the remainder of Wainwright's term.<ref>"Perry names aide to state Supreme Court", ''Laredo Morning Times'', November 27, 2012, p. 5A</ref>
==Early education and career== Wainwright graduated summa cum laude with a major in economics from Howard University, studied at the London School of Economics as a Luard Scholar during his junior year, and received his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 1988.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.reelectdalewainwright.com/releases |title=Articles About Justice Wainwright :: Dale Wainwright |access-date=2008-10-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090727040023/http://www.reelectdalewainwright.com/releases |archive-date=2009-07-27 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
In 1999 Wainwright was appointed by then Texas Governor George W. Bush to the 334th District Court in Harris County, where he served until his election to the supreme court.{{citation needed |date=February 2016}}
== Elections == === 2002 election === Wainwright and Wallace B. Jefferson were the first African Americans to be elected to the Texas Supreme Court. Jefferson was initially appointed by Perry in 2001, and won his seat in 2002, in the same election in which Wainwright was elected to an open seat on the court. Like all justices on the state supreme court, Wainwright was a Republican.<ref>[http://www.texasbar.com/Content/ContentGroups/Publications3/Journal/20041/February3/Profile_Texas_Supreme_Court_Justice_Dale_Wainwright.htm Supreme Court Profile: Dale Wainwright, Texas Bar Journal]{{Dead link|date=November 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, Retrieved May 17, 2009</ref>
=== 2008 election === In 2008, Wainwright sought his first reelection to the court. His main opponent was Democratic lawyer Sam Houston. Wainwright was reelected to a new six-year term with 51 percent of the vote to Houston's 45 percent. Libertarian candidate David G. Smith received 3 percent.{{citation needed |date=February 2016}}
== Personal life == Wainwright and his wife, Debbie, have three sons, Jeremy, Phillip, and Joshua Wainwright.<ref name=dalew/>
==See also== * Black conservatism in the United States
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == *[http://www.reelectdalewainwright.com/ 2008 Campaign Site] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081006005640/http://www.reelectdalewainwright.com/ |date=2008-10-06 }} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20070216191941/http://www.supreme.courts.state.tx.us/court/justice_dwainwright.asp Profile of Justice Wainwright at the Texas Supreme Court website] *[http://www.tennessean.com/local/archives/03/05/33338215.shtml?Element_ID=33338215 "New Texas Supreme Court Justice began aspirations in Mt. Juliet," ''The Tennessean,'' May 29, 2003.]
{{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{s-bef|before=Deborah Hankinson}} {{s-ttl|title=Texas Supreme Court Justice,<br>Place 7|years=2003–2012}} {{s-aft|after=Jeffrey S. Boyd}} {{s-end}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wainwright, Dale}} Category:1961 births Category:Living people Category:People from Mount Juliet, Tennessee Category:African-American judges Category:Howard University alumni Category:Lawyers from Austin, Texas Category:Lawyers from Houston Category:Texas Republicans Category:Texas state court judges Category:Justices of the Supreme Court of Texas Category:University of Chicago Law School alumni Category:21st-century American judges Category:21st-century American lawyers Category:20th-century African-American lawyers Category:21st-century African-American lawyers